TVSquad

(S08E17) Last week's special episode of CSI, the one written by the Two and a Half Men creators, was fun and light-hearted and filled with inside jokes and gags. Last night's show was the complete antithesis: brutal, bloody and in the end, shockingly sad. It was Gary Dourdan's last episode of the series. Warrick is gone and the only way you'll ever see him on CSI again will be in flashback or we discover a twin brother or lookalike cousin.

The show picked up on the storyline began last season, when Warrick bedded an exotic dancer from Pigalle who wound up dead. He was cleared back then, but never got over her death. We learn that he's been obsessively stalking Lou Gedda, the club owner whom Warrick believes had her killed. Before you can say, "what the heck is going on with the funeral with the two guys in the coffin," Warrick is caught seemingly red-handed (literally with blood all over his hands!) in Lou's office where the hulking body of the gangster has been riddled with bullets in his barber chair.

There's been a lot of flux on CSI, CBS's top rated, long-running, extremely popular forensics-procedural-crime drama (I think that covers all the categories, right?) At the end of last season, Jorja Fox decided not to come back to the show, and her role as Sara was written out in the first two episodes of the year. The producers left the door open for her to return -- they didn't kill her off -- but she's gone.

Tonight is the last of Gary Dourdan as Warrick. He's having trouble off-camera, a serious felony arrest earlier this month for drugs, so his leaving may have been a necessity even if he hadn't chosen to exit. Therefore, it's a good thing to be able to tell you that USA Today reports that Marg Helgenberger has inked a new contract with CSI for two more years. That, coupled with William Petersen's signing a new deal in April, means that CSI is in good shape for the foreseeable future. CBS should be doing the happy-dance.

The CSI/Two and a Half Men writers switch was a very clever promotion for CBS. Fortunately, the writers saw the opportunity to change places as more than just a publicity stunt. They really took the scripting seriously and came up with inventive episodes for each program. If this were a competition to see which team would deliver the better show, who would take on the task of writing winning TV in a genre not their own and succeed beyond expectations, the comedy scribes take the gold. Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn's CSI was pure genius, and if it were up to me, CSI should submit it for an Emmy.

But first there was Two and a Half Men. In an episode called "Fish in a Drawer" (and if somebody could explain what that title means, I'd be most appreciative), the story picked up after Evelyn married Teddy. In the teleplay by CSI regular writers Evan Dunsky and Sarah Goldfinger, Charlie and Courtney check out of the reception for a little romp in his room upstairs only to find Teddy's dead bod on the bed. Talk about spoiling the mood. Teddy wasn't only a corpse, he was a corpse with his pants pulled down around his ankles and lipstick stains on his hoo-ha. The cops were called in, a detective who was a dead ringer for Marg Helgenberger -- played by redhead Jamie Rose -- had the vaguely Bondian name of Jagov, Sloane Jagov. Naturally, Charlie had to make a move on her. He couldn't keep his eyes off her cleavage.

We told you a long time ago about the writers of CSI switching places with the writers of Two and a Half Men for one episode, way back when people thought it was a joke and that it would never actually happen. Well, it's happening, and after the jump is the video to prove it.

The idea came from Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, who approached CSI executive producer Carol Mendelsohn about switching teams for one episode of each series. The plot involves the murder of a famous Hollywood comedienne/sitcom diva who is difficult on the set of her show, and Lorre is quick to point out that it's NOT based on Cybill Shepherd, who he worked with on her show (*cough cough wink wink*). The video shows the behind the scenes goings on as the shows meet in the writers room and plan her Las Vegas demise.

Last fall, CSI's Jorja Fox left the show. Two weeks ago, it was confirmed that William Petersen signed a one-year contract to stick around for the show's ninth season. This week, we learn that series regular Gary Dourdan decided to quit the show at the end of the current season.

Dourdan, who plays CSI Level 3 Warrick Brown, and CBS/Paramount came to a mutual decision not renew the actor's contract with the show.

Every time he thinks he's out, they pull him back in again! No, just kidding. It's not like that. This isn't Michael in Godfather 3. Nobody's forcing anyone.

However, it is true that William Petersen is returning to CBS's CSI for the ninth season. This is great news for fans of the show -- and the star -- because for years now he's been yelping about leaving the hit series to do other things. Last year, for example, he was written off the show for a brief hiatus in which Liev Schreiber was cast as a temporary replacement for Gil Grissom in the Las Vegas crime lab.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist, let alone a forensic specialist, to detect that the CSI franchise is hot. CBS currently boasts three shows with CSI in the title -- CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York -- four if you include the non-Jerry Bruckheimer produced military procedural NCIS. So, then, it shouldn't come as a surprise that CSI is expanding. No, there's not a new CSI TV show happening, but there is an amusement park variation on CSI coming to life at Magic Mountain, the Valencia, California tourist attraction. (By the way, isn't it nice that Valencia didn't get nuked for real like it did on 24 last season?)

It may sound a little bit like a headline from The Onion, but it's actually in the works, according to CSI producer Carol Mendelsohn.

Speaking at a Banff event in Canada earlier this week, Mendelsohn said she got a call from Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre, who suggested the switch. I'm not sure if it would be permanent, but it's something they could do for an episode or two. CSI will also go on location to San Francisco this season, and next season might go to London.

Maybe the Two and a Half Men writers can have Grissom sleep with a different woman every night, and maybe even hire a wisecracking kid to help with a murder investigation. He can be a prodigy who doesn't do well in school but is a genius at forensics.

(S07E17) Well it looks liked we're putting The Miniature Killer on hold for the time being... or are we? I have a theory but we'll get to that later. Instead, we got a regular, run-of-the-mill episode of CSI. The whole team working together on one case, just like the good ol' days. Pretty interesting story too. It actually reminded me a lot of that episode from the third or fourth season where the cheerleader got drugged, went a little crazy, and ended up eating pieces of flesh from her dead boyfriend's chest on a football field. Remember that one? This one felt very similar. Only difference was that this time around, cannibalism wasn't the operative "C" word. Crabs took the spotlight this time. Everyone had crabs.

A lot can said about the addition of Liev Schreiber to the cast of CSI. A lot of good things if you ask me. For a while now, I've been very anti CSI. It's just been so ho-hum and to be frank, boring. Michael Keppler's four week stint in the Vegas crime lab has reignited my interest in the show though.

It's funny how it took the addition and subsequent homicide of a brand new character for me to realize that but I'm being completely honest when I say that the past few weeks were some of the best stuff CSI has had in a while. Now here's what I mean when I refer to Keppler's impact because there was one other obvious thing missing from those four episodes and it didn't bother me all that much.

Save for maybe around fifteen minutes total, there was no Grissom.

CBS finally got around to doing something about that lingering question, "who is Keppler?" Up until a few days ago, the promotional website meant to inform viewers about the CSI cast change has been pretty bare, save for a cool picture.

The site is now fully running and even has some video clips giving viewers clues about what to expect. There are three clips posted right now and I would expect a couple more before Liev Schreiber makes his entrance in next week's first sans Grissom CSI, "Sweet Jane."

For those looking to be spoiled, read on and I'll tell you what I gathered from the three clips. Looks like Keppler might actually be worth looking forward to.

(S07E11) This was an incredibly frustrating episode. As much as I love this show, episodes like this are why I don't review it weekly like I do CSI: Miami. At least with Caruso and the Miami crew, I know what I'm getting week in and week out: a cheesy, campy, and thoroughly enjoyable over the top soap opera. With CSI, it's far too often a crap shoot. And that's lousy because I expect this show to be good. Where did CBS get off telling viewers that this would be "an hour of television we'd never forget?"

For the past week, CBS has been running a sad preview for tonight's episode of CSI, the last one for star William Petersen (for a while anwyay). Liev Schreiber joins the cast soon.

Hey, I'll admit I don't watch this show (even though it's the MOST IMPORTANT SHOW IN THE UNIVERSE). So I ask fans: is this departure as big as they're making it out to be. Yes, yes, I know he's the star of the show and he's the leader of the team and all that. But the commercials make it sound, with the "you never thought he'd leave" voiceover and the tinkling piano and the emotion, you'd think that Lucy Ricardo was just hit by a bus or maybe Petersen had died in real life and this was his last show.

Why is Petersen leaving temporarily anyway? To star in a play? Burnt out? Contract negotiations? The episode preview should get into that: "People come and go...but you never thought he'd leave...but due to other commitments and just a feeling that he had to get away for a while, our star has to leave and will be replaced by another actor...tonight, on a very special CSI."

To drum up some buzz for William Petersen's temporary departure from CSI, CBS now has a website up and running. You can check it out at that link but it's essentially just that picture that I've posted above. The only difference is that the site has some eerie music playing along. For those that haven't heard, Petersen's character Gil Grissom is taking a four week sabbatical on the show and to fill the hole, Liev Schreiber is joining the CSI team as new investigator Michael Keppler. He'd be the white silhouette up there. Very cool nod to Abbey Road with the group shot too. Take a look at their feet. Notice who's playing Paul and crossing barefoot? Wasn't Paul "supposed" to be dead though? Perhaps some foreshadowing of Grissom's future by season's end?

Well, kind of... yeah. For those that have caught the new promo for the next episode of CSI, it touts Grissom's departure from the Vegas lab. The episode, appropriately titled "Leaving Las Vegas," airs next Thursday, January 4. But we sort of knew this anyway. We even reported a few months ago that Liev Schreiber was joining the cast as a new lead investigator named Michael Keppler.

So at this point, I suppose you shouldn't be worried. The episode description even says that Grissom is only leaving for a four week sabbatical. But then I went digging.